Rotary engine



(No Model.) 3 SheetsShee't 1.

I M. MATSON.

ROTARY. ENGINE. v

N0. 575,124. Paten-ted Jan. 12, 1897.-

milwcsw I M n Model.) s Sheets-Sheet 2.

' M. MATSON.

ROTARY ENGINE.

Patented Jan. 12, 1897.

(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 3.

M. MATSON. ROTARY ENGINE.

. No. 575,124. Patented Jan. 12, 1897".

' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MATT MATSON, OF SEDRO, XVASHINGTON.

ROTARY ENGINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 575,124, dated January12, 1897.

A li ti fil d January 20, 1896. Serial No. 576,127. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, MATT MATsON, a citizen of the United States,residing at Sedro, in the county of Skagit, State of WV'ashington, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Rotary Engines; and I dohereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact descriptionof the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to whichit appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to rotary steam-engines; and itconsists,essentially,of a cylinder in the form of a ring surrounding theshaft, which ring is circular in cross-section and has a slot in itsinner surface, within which revolves a disk upon the shaft. This diskcarries two circular pistons fittingthe cylinder.

The valves which resist the pressure of the steam in one direction aregate-valves, operated by cams, which raise them to permit the pistons topass. There are three of these. The steam admission and exhaust is fromabout the shaft through passages in the revolving disk.

Figure 1 shows a vertical longitudinal section. Fig. 2 is a partial endand partial sectional view. Fig. 3 is an end view from the oppositedirection of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is an enlarged detail of the back-pressuregates in the cylinder. Fig. 4 is an edge view of the gate-valve casing.Fig. 5 is 'a detail'of the cam-operated lever for working the admissionand exhaust valves.

The shaft A is mounted in suitable bearin gs A in the frame A. Itcarries between these bearings the disk 13, which is keyed to the shaft.This disk has admission passages or ports I) and exhaust passages orports 1) formed within it and running from the ends of the hub of thedisk to its outer edge or rim. The admission-ports I) open to one end ofthe hub and the exhaust-ports to the others. When the engine isreversed, the function of these ports is also reversed, ports 19 thenbeing the exhaust-ports and I) being the admissionports, and what wasthe steam-supply pipe becoming the exhaust-pipe.

Each end of the hub is surrounded by hollow castings O and C, which areconnected, respectively, to the exhaust and the steamsupply pipes and donot rotate with the shaft A. Suitable steam-packing devices C and O aresupplied to make these joints tight.

In line with the partitions between the parts I) and b on opposite sidesof the disk are attached the circular pistons D. These are braceduponeach side by the braces d (I. These, besides acting as braces, are asafeguard against wrecking of the engine in case the back-pressurevalve-operating mechanism should fail. In this case the back-pressurevalve would be raised by the slope of the brace and no damage would.result. These pistons fit snugly the annular circular cylinderD. Thiscylinder is made in three parts, each covering one hundred and twentydegrees,.and is directly attached to the frame at the bottom of thecircle and at the upper part, by means of the rods a, to the uprightarms A of the frame.

At the points of juncture of the three sections of the cylinder areformed seats for the gates or back pressure valves E. These valves orgates are flat plates, which are a little wider than the diameter of thecylinderbore and slide in a fiat chamber formed between the twoadjoining sections of the cylinder. The construction of these is verysimilar to that of an ordinary gate-valve. A slight groove or ledge E isformed in the side of the cylinder, so as to form a firm seat for thevalve to seat upon. A flange d, which surrounds the gate or valvechamber, serves to fasten together the two sections of the cylinder andmakes the valveaccessible. These gates or back-pressure valves areoperated through a stem E which extends through the packing device E tothe outside of the cylinder and is connected to a cross-bar E Thesevalves are operated from the cam G, which is fixed upon the shaft A andrevolves therewith. This cam is a disk having a side projecting flange,which in the main is of a circular outline, but has two depressions orcam-hollows in it and opposite each other. Bars G, slidingin guides Gcarry rollers g g, which engage opposite sides of the camflange and aregiven a reciprocating motion thereby. These, through the levers G G androck-shaft g transmit the reciprocating motion to the links E, which actupon the cross-bar E and the stem E of the back-pressure valve. Thislink E is composed of eyes 6 at each end whose stems are screw-threaded,one being threaded right -handed and the other lef t-handed. These screwinto the central hollowcylinder or pipe E, which is similarly threaded,and are each provided with a lock-nut c. This permits of an accurateadjustment of the movement of the gates or back-pressure valves D.

In the admission and exhaust ports Z1 and I) of the disk B are formedthe valve-scatsf, which receive circular or cylindrical valves F and F.The stems of these valves pass out through suitable stuffing-boxes andupon the outside are surrounded by the spring f which would, ifunrestrained, hold the valve constantly open. Between the collars f onthe outer end of the stem fits one side of the notched ends h of thelever II. This lever surrounds the cylinder 0, which admits steam to thedisk B, and is pivoted to the ring II, which also surrounds the cylinder0 and turns thereon between shoulders.

Attached to the inner end of the piece C is the face-cam I. This camhears at opposite points against the lever II and oscillates it, so asto alternately open and close the two opposite valves to which it isattached. This lever would be attached to and operate two diagonallyopposite valves only, the other two being'held open by their springs fThe ports in which the two inoperative valves are placed are the oneswhich act as exhaustports, while the others act as ad mission-ports.\Vith the disk revolving in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 2 theports Z) I) are the admission-ports and the ports I) b are the exhaust-ports. The exhaust ports are constantly open and are exhausting thesteam from in front of the piston.

The cam G is so designed that the gates or back-pressure valves E, ofwhich there are three at one hundred and twenty degrees apart, willbegin to open thirty degrees before the piston reaches it and will notclose until the piston has passed thirty degrees beyond it, being openthrough an angle of rotation of sixty degrees. From the fact that thegates or back-pressure valves are one hundred and twenty degrees apart,pistons one hundred and eighty degrees apart, and the backpressurevalves require sixty degrees of travel of the piston to open and close,it follows that one back-pressure valve is just commencing the openingmovement as the one ahead of it has finished its closing movement.

As a back-pressure valve has closed after the passage of the piston, thecam I opens the admission-valve and holds it open for a period of sixtydegrees travel, when it is closed again, and for the next sixty degreesof travel the steam acts by expansion. There is thus at all timessteam-pressure on the piston, half of the time direct pressure from theboiler and half the time the expanding pressure of the entrapped steam.The cam I is formed so as :0 cause the valves F or F, whichever arebeing operated thereby, to open and close three times during eachrevolution.

IVhen it is desired to reverse the engine, the lever II is shifted, soas to disengage from the set of valves F or F previously engaged and soas to engage the other set. This is done by shiftin g the locking-leverll from one to the opposite end notch in the bar 11, which is attachedto the side of the disk. This leaves the former admission-valvesconstantly open as exhaust-valves and operates the former exhaust-valvesby the lever II. At the same time it is necessary,through proper valvesand pipes, to make such changes outside of the engine that the pipes Cand C change their function, the steam being admitted to and exhaustedfrom the opposite sides of the disk to that previously used. Thisinvolves nothing but an arrangement of pipes and valves, which would beobvious to any engineer and is not herein illustrated.

To prevent leakage between the sides of the disk and the sides of thecontaining-slot in the cylinder, packing-rings L L are provided. L is aring which forms a complete circle and, being confined on the outside,will resist deformation by pressure from any point toward the center.The ring L may be formed of sections and is a follower-ring used tocompress the packing material L which is placed between the ring L andthe cylinder. Set-screws If and L working in lugs on the cylinder,adjust these rings to the proper pressure.

To secure a tight joint and prevent leakage between the back-pressurevalve and the edge of the revolving disk, I groove the edge of the valvewhich comes in contact with the disk and place therein a small bar 0which is held out by the spring 6 This is attached to the spring, andthe spring to the valve, so that they cannot become separated. Thissecures an easy but certain contact between the two and preventsleakage.

To enable the gate or back-pressure valves to be readily removed, thesections N of Figs. 4. and 4, which consist of two blocks of iron of thesame width as the valve-chamber, are bolted between the flanges of thevalve-chamberat theirends. These blocks form the outer end of thevalve-chamber, and when they are removed, which can be done by removingfour bolts, the valve can be withdrawn.

To pack the piston and prevent leakage by it, I use a springpacking-ring O. This spring is of metal and surrounds the piston, lyingin a groove in its surface. It is sufficiently broad, so that it willoverlap the groove con taining the back-pressure valves. Its ends, whichcome on each side of the disk at its point of juncture with the piston,fit in notches cut in the edge of the disk. Its action is the same asthe packing-rin gs of an ordinary engine-piston.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secureby Letters Patcut, is

1. In a rotary engine the combination with an annular cylinder having aslot in its inner periphery, back-pressure gates and means for operatingthem, of a rotatable disk fitting the slot in said cylinder and havingadmission and exhaust ports extending from its center to its edge andopeninginto the cylinder, of valves for closing said ports having stemswhich extend without the disk, springs which unrestrained will keep saidValves open, and means which may be attached to the valves of either setto open and close them at predetermined intervals, substantially asshown and described.

2. In a rotary engine, the combination with an annular cylinder having aslot in its inner periphery, back-pressure gates and means for operatingthem, of a rotatable disk fitting the slot in said cylinder and havingadmission and exhaust ports extending from its center to its edge andopening into the cylinder, of valves for closing said ports having stemswhich extend without the disk, springs which when unrestrained will keepsaid valves open, a fixed cam, a pivoted lever revolving with the diskand engaging said cam, and means for attaching it to and detaching itfrom the stems of either set of admission-valves, substantially as shownand described.

3. In a rotary engine, the combination with an annular cylinder having aslot in its inner periphery, back-pressure gates and means for operatingthem, of a rotatable disk fitting the slot in said cylinder and havingadmission and exhaust ports extending from its center to its edge andopening into the cylinder, of valves for closing said ports having stemswhich extend without the disk, springs which when unrestrained will keepsaid valves open, a lever surrounding the shaft and pivoted on a centralaxis so as to revolve with the disk, a central fixed face-cam engagingsaid lever to oscillate it, and means for attaching the ends of thelever to the opposite valves of either set of admission-valves,substantially as shown and described.

4. In a rotary engine, the combination with an annular cylinder having aslot in its inner periphery, back-pressure gates and means for operatingthem, of a rotatable disk fitting the slot in said cylinder and havingadmission and exhaust ports extending from its center to its edge andopening into the cylinder, of valves for closing said ports having stemswhich extend without the disk, springs which when unrestrained will keepsaid valves open, a lever surrounding the shaft and pivoted on a centralaxis so as to revolve with the disk and having side notches at each endadapted to engage the stems of either set of valves, a central fixedface-cam engaging said lever to oscillate it, a notched arm fixed to thedisk, and a spring-held latch engaging said notched arm and holding theoscillating lever in engagement with either set of valve-stems or withneither, substantially as shown anddescribed.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.I MATT MATSON.

lVitnesses GEORGE HosKINsoN, P. J. DUVANTPORT.

